CN111183602A

CN111183602A - Instantaneous guard interval

Info

Publication number: CN111183602A
Application number: CN201780095748.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: R.巴尔德迈尔; S.帕克维尔; D.陈拉尔松; E.达尔曼
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2017-08-09
Filing date: 2017-08-09
Publication date: 2020-05-19
Anticipated expiration: 2037-08-09
Also published as: US11646846B2; WO2019031997A1; EP3665810A4; CN111183602B; EP3665810A1; EP3665810B1; US20200244418A1

Abstract

A method of operating a user equipment (10) in a radio access network is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting, during a transmission period, first signaling having a first set of transmission characteristics and second signaling having a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set, wherein transmitting comprises including, in the time domain, a transient guard interval between the first signaling and the second signaling. The disclosure also relates to related devices and methods.

Description

Instantaneous guard interval

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to wireless communication technology, particularly in the context of transmission timing.

Background

Fifth generation radio access technologies/networks (RAT/RAN) offer a high degree of flexibility, including the possibility for transmitting short duration signalling. In particular, the new air interface (NR) of 3GPP defines several physical channels/signals that may have short transmission durations, e.g. short PUCCH (covering 1 or 2 symbols), minislot (1 or more symbols), SRS (1 or more symbols, e.g. up to 4 symbols), PRACH preamble (1 or more symbols). Since these channels or signaling are typically independently power controlled, they may typically be transmitted with different powers. This may occur during a transition from one physical channel/signaling to another. Furthermore, in some cases, for example for frequency hopping (frequency hopping), a transition in frequency may occur. In such transitions, transmitter behavior (e.g., oscillator or amplifier behavior) may produce undesirable transients or signal disturbances. Such transitions can become particularly problematic if they extend into signaling with short transmission durations, which can lead to a significant increase in error rates.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a method that allows for improved handling of situations where transient phenomena (transient) may occur between a first signaling and a second signaling. These methods are particularly advantageously implemented in fifth generation (5G) telecommunications networks or 5G radio access technologies or networks (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (third generation partnership project, standardization organization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN that evolved according to NR (e.g. release 15 or higher) or LTE.

Accordingly, a method of operating a user equipment (or more generally, a radio node) in a radio access network is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting, during a transmission period, first signaling having a first set of transmission characteristics and second signaling having a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set. Transmitting includes including a transient guard interval between the first signaling and the second signaling in a time domain.

Furthermore, a user equipment (or more generally a radio node) for a radio access network is considered. The radio node or user equipment is adapted to transmit, during a transmission period, first signaling having a first set of transmission characteristics and second signaling having a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set. The transmitting includes including a transient guard interval in the time domain between the first signaling and the second signaling. The radio node or user equipment may comprise and/or be adapted to utilize processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transceiver and/or a transmitter, for such transmission. Alternatively or additionally, it may comprise a transfer module for such transfer.

A method of operating a radio node in a radio access network is also presented. The method comprises the following steps: configuring a user equipment (or more generally, a second radio node) with an instantaneous configuration indicating that an instantaneous guard interval is to be inserted in the time domain between first signaling and second signaling to be transmitted by the user equipment (or second radio node), wherein the first signaling has a first set of transmission characteristics and the second signaling has a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set.

Furthermore, a radio node for a radio access network is disclosed. The radio node is adapted to: the user equipment (or second radio node) is configured with a transient configuration. The transient configuration indicates that a transient guard interval is to be inserted in the time domain between first signaling and second signaling to be transmitted by the user equipment (or a second radio node), wherein the first signaling has a first set of transmission characteristics and the second signaling has a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set. The radio node may comprise and/or be adapted to utilize processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transceiver and/or a transmitter, for such a configuration. Alternatively or additionally, it may comprise a configuration module for such a configuration.

The radio node may be a network node. However, in some cases, e.g. for sidelink communications, the radio node may be implemented as a user equipment.

The first signaling may be scheduled or configured to be adjacent in time to the second signaling. The first signaling may generally precede the second signaling in time and/or be scheduled or configured to precede the second signaling. In general, the first signaling and the second signaling may be scheduled or configured for transmission, e.g., with the same message or with different messages. In some cases, the instantaneous configuration may be configured with such a message, or with (another) separate message. The instantaneous configuration may be considered to be configured with control signaling, in particular downlink or sidelink control signaling, e.g. uplink grants or sidelink grants. The first signaling and the second signaling may be considered to be independently power controlled. It may be considered that the first signaling and the second signaling are to be transmitted or transmitted using the same radio circuitry, e.g. the same transmitter or transmitter chain or transceiver. The first signaling and the second signaling may typically be in the same communication direction, e.g., uplink or sidelink. In some variations, they are in different communication directions, e.g., the first signaling may be in the uplink and the second signaling in the sidelink, or vice versa. In general, the first signaling may be associated with a first carrier and/or parameter set (numerology), and the second signaling may be associated with a second carrier and/or parameter set. The first carrier and the second carrier and/or the first set of parameters and the second set of parameters may be the same or may be different. If the first carrier and the second carrier are different, they may belong to the same carrier aggregation (in particular, if the first signaling and the second signaling have the same communication direction). The transmitting of the first signaling and/or the second signaling may be based on a timing advance command and/or value, which may be configured, for example, by a radio node like a network node. Different timing advance values may be used for the first and second signalling, e.g. a first timing advance value for the first signalling and a second timing advance value for the second signalling. The timing advance value for the second signaling may be based on the first timing advance value and the instantaneous guard interval, such that, for example, the second timing advance value may be determined to insert the instantaneous guard interval between the first signaling and the second signaling. In some cases, the first timing advance value and the second timing advance value may be equal.

The set of transmission characteristics may comprise one or more parameters and/or characteristics, in particular a duration of signaling (e.g. one or more symbol time lengths), and/or a signal strength (in particular a transmission strength, e.g. a transmission power), and/or a bandwidth, and/or a frequency, and/or a (physical) channel. Two sets may be considered different if they differ in at least one parameter and/or characteristic, in particular in channel and/or signal strength, or potentially at least in signal strength, for example if they are independently power controlled or controllable. In some cases, the sets of characteristics may be considered different from each other if the associated signaling has independently controllable transmission power and/or frequency and/or bandwidth, and thus may potentially be different. The instantaneous guard interval may be useful for such cases with potentially different physical transmission parameters (e.g., power, frequency, and/or bandwidth), even if the difference is small or negligible for the actual signaling, to avoid unnecessary overhead.

The first signaling may carry and/or represent one or more first transport blocks, each of which may be divided into one or more code blocks. The second signaling may carry and/or represent one or more second transport blocks, which may be different from the first transport block, and which may be divided into one or more code blocks. The code block of the second signaling may be frequency-first (frequency-first) mapped and/or mapped to one or two symbols of the second signaling.

In some variations, the transient guard interval may be a silence interval (silence interval) or an interval filled with transient signaling, for example during transmission and/or configured and/or indicated by such configuration. The silence interval may be an interval without transmission, e.g. a transmission by the user equipment, at least with respect to a transmission using a radio circuit like a transmitter or a transmitter chain or a transceiver for transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling. The interval with instantaneous signaling may comprise signaling according to a defined and/or predefined and/or configured pattern, for example. In general, the transient guard interval may comprise different sub-intervals, which may be of different types. For example, the instantaneous guard interval may comprise one or more silence intervals, and/or an interval filled with one or more instantaneous signaling, such as a cyclic interval. An instantaneous guard interval may be considered comprising a cyclic suffix of the first signaling, e.g. of the last symbol thereof, and/or a cyclic prefix of the second signaling, e.g. of the first symbol thereof, wherein optionally a silence interval may be provided after the suffix and/or before the prefix.

In particular, the first set may differ from the second set in at least one of signaling duration, channel type, transmission and/or allocated (scheduled and/or configured) bandwidth (e.g., number of measured subcarriers), frequency (e.g., frequency domain or location of one or more subcarriers in the spectrum), transmission strength (representing signal strength, e.g., at the time of transmission).

In general, the transient guard interval may be considered to be adapted to the circuit switching time of switching between the first signaling and the second signaling and/or to include or cover such time, which may be referred to as the transient time. The transient protection interval may be determined to cover the circuit switching time and/or at least 50% or more, 75% or more, or 90% or more of the circuit switching time. The circuit switching time and/or the instantaneous guard interval may generally be configured or configurable and/or device dependent, for example dependent on the configuration of one or more circuits of the user equipment. Transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling may be based on determining a circuit switching time and/or an instantaneous protection interval, which may be determined based on the circuit switching time. Transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling may comprise and/or be based on and/or be performed after: an indication (e.g., communicating corresponding information), a circuit switching time, and/or an instantaneous guard interval indication (e.g., based on the circuit switching time) to a network (e.g., a network node). The circuit switching time may be determined by the user equipment, e.g. by reading from a memory, or based on self-testing (self-testing). The configuration of the user equipment, e.g. by the network node, may be based on the circuit switching time, which may e.g. be taken into account when determining the instantaneous configuration.

In some variations, the duration of the second signaling may be shorter than the duration of the first signaling, e.g., including a smaller number of symbols. This may be particularly true if the second signaling is associated with short PUSCH or short PUCCH signaling, or with micro-slot or reference signaling (such as SRS).

It can be considered that the transmission periods are adjacent in time, for example, by two downlink transmission timing structures. In particular, the transmission period may be adjacent to such a transmission timing structure. The transmission period may be an uplink or sidelink transmission period, such as a transmission timing structure or resource structure assigned or scheduled for it, e.g., a UL or S1 time slot or subframe.

The transmission period may be generally represented by and/or included in a transmission timing structure, and/or may span two transmission timing structures, which may be adjacent in time. The transmission timing structure, for example comprising or representing a transmission period, may in particular be a slot or a subframe.

The second signaling may have a duration covering N symbol time intervals, N being less than 7, in particular less than 5, or less than 3, and/or N being 2 or 1. The second signaling may be particularly associated with micro-slot or short TTI signaling or short data channel signaling (e.g., short PUSCH) or short control channel signaling (e.g., short PUCCH), etc. Alternatively or additionally, the second signaling may be frequency first mapped, e.g., such that one or more code blocks of a transport block of the second signaling are mapped to subcarriers of symbols of the second signaling, particularly before a possible remainder of the code blocks are mapped to one or more different symbols of the second signaling (if available or necessary). Mapping code blocks to symbols may generally depend on the modulation and coding scheme utilized, which may determine how many bits/code blocks may be mapped to symbols or resource elements.

In some cases, the first signaling and/or the second signaling may be reference signaling, e.g., sounding or pilot signaling, e.g., SRS signaling, which may include 1, 2, 3, or 4 symbols.

The transient configuration may typically be configured using control signaling (e.g., dedicated signaling or broadcast/multicast). The dedicated signalling may comprise, for example, unicast signalling specifically addressed to the user equipment, for example comprising downlink control signalling, in particular DCI signalling, and/or grants, for example side link grants or uplink grants as to whether the configuration is performed on a side link or a downlink. Configuring the instantaneous configuration may include determining an instantaneous configuration, and/or an instantaneous guard interval, and/or a timing advance value or command. The timing advance command and/or value and the instantaneous guard interval may be configured in different messages. Alternatively or additionally, the instantaneous configuration may indicate a gap interval, which may be determined based on the instantaneous guard interval, and/or the maximum timing advance value may be adapted based on the instantaneous guard interval. The instantaneous configuration may typically be indicated or configured using one or more messages, which may be on different layers of the radio stack, such as the physical layer (e.g., DCI) and/or the MAC layer and/or the RRC/RLC layer. It may be considered that the instantaneous configuration indicates e.g. a (e.g. shortened) transmission duration and/or transmission period adapted for the first signaling and/or the second signaling. This may be represented, for example, by a timing gap. The duration of the adaptation may be determined based on the instantaneous guard interval and/or the timing advance value (which may be assumed, where the assumed value may be adapted based on the instantaneous guard interval and/or the adapted transmission duration).

The transient guard interval may be and/or include a low level interval, a ramping interval, and/or a cycling interval. Alternatively or additionally, the instantaneous signaling of the instantaneous guard interval may be associated with a third set of transmission characteristics corresponding at least in part to the second set, for example in terms of one or more parameters such as signal strength and/or bandwidth and/or frequency. Such an interval may be considered as an example of an interval including instantaneous signaling. Thus, for example, depending on the particular mode, the instantaneous guard interval may be associated with and/or include signaling (signaling transmitted by the UE, e.g., using the same radio circuit/transmitter chain as used for the first signaling and/or the second signaling). The low-level interval may include signaling having a transmission power and/or signal strength that is lower than (e.g., at least 50% or less than, or 25% or less than) the transmission power or signal strength of the first signaling and/or the second signaling. The ramp interval may include signaling that the signal strength/transmission power ramps up or ramps down from the strength or power of the first signaling to the strength or power of the second signaling. The cyclic interval may include a cyclic prefix (e.g., for the second signaling) and/or a cyclic suffix, e.g., based on the second signaling and/or the first signaling.

It can be generally considered that the instantaneous guard interval is expressed in absolute time (e.g. ms or microseconds), or in symbol time length, or in multiples or fractions thereof, e.g. depending on the parameter set. In some variations, the instantaneous guard interval may be indicated and/or represented by different timing advance values for the first signaling and the second signaling. The time difference may be considered as an instantaneous guard interval. Such a timing advance value may be indicated in a transient configuration.

In general, transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling may include transmitting a third signaling or even more signaling. Between each signalling next to each other in time, an instantaneous guard interval (equal or different in duration) may be inserted. The at least second and third signalling or one or more further signalling, and optionally the first signalling, may be short in time, e.g. 3 or fewer symbols. Different signaling may have different durations (number of symbols/symbol time interval) or some or all may have the same duration (length of time interval, e.g., number of symbols). Alternatively or additionally, the second signalling and/or the third signalling or further signalling may be frequency first mapped.

It can generally be considered that the instantaneous guard interval is determined based on the distance between the user equipment (or the second radio node) and the radio node or the network node. For example, whether to insert an instantaneous guard interval may be based on whether the distance is above a certain threshold, and/or whether it is within a certain range, such as a cell range or a communication range. In some variations, if the distance is below the threshold, a gap may be inserted. Alternatively or additionally, a gap may be inserted for the small cell (e.g., in terms of the aforementioned distance, and/or based on network settings). The instantaneous configuration may indicate the distance and/or the corresponding determined instantaneous guard interval and/or be determined based on the distance and/or network settings and/or whether the cell is a small cell and/or the indicated instantaneous guard interval may be determined based on the distance and/or network settings and/or the cell type (e.g., whether it is a small cell). In general, the instantaneous configuration and/or instantaneous guard interval may be determined based on a timing advance value and/or range of a cell or communication link, which may generally relate to and/or depend on a timing advance value, in particular a maximum timing advance value. Configuring a radio node like a UE with a transient configuration may comprise: for example, determining a timing advance value based on and/or taking into account the instantaneous guard interval, and/or configuring the user equipment or the second radio with such a configuration. Alternatively or additionally, determining the instantaneous configuration may comprise adapting a timing advance value or command to the instantaneous guard interval.

Alternatively or additionally, the instantaneous guard interval may be considered to be determined and/or configured based on the duration (e.g., in time and/or symbol time intervals) of the second signaling (or third signaling or additional signaling) and/or whether the signaling is frequency first mapped. For example, if the signaling is not frequency first mapped and/or is longer than a threshold duration, e.g., M symbol time intervals, e.g., 4 or more symbols, then the instantaneous guard period may not be inserted. In some variations, for example, additionally or alternatively, the instantaneous guard interval may be determined and/or configured based on a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) to be used for the second (or third or further) signaling. For example, if the MCS indicates a low number of bits per symbol, e.g., QAM16 or lower, the codeblocks may be spread out in time, e.g., even for frequency first mapping. In this case, the transient guard interval may be omitted in some cases.

It can generally be considered to transmit the first signaling and/or the second signaling, and/or the instantaneous guard interval, based on the configuration, in particular the instantaneous configuration. The instantaneous configuration may schedule the first signaling and/or the second signaling. In some cases, the instantaneous guard interval may be indicated and/or represented by and/or based on first signaling and second signaling, the first signaling and the second signaling being scheduled (e.g., by instantaneous configuration) with one or more symbol time intervals (e.g., an integer number of symbols) between them such that they are scheduled not to be directly adjacent in time, particularly in a symbol time interval based time grid defined by the transmission timing structure. Scheduling may generally be considered to refer to symbols in such a grid, which may be considered to be a quantized temporal structure. In some variations, the instantaneous guard interval may be considered configurable independently of such a trellis, and/or shifted to the trellis, and/or considered to be represented by a real-valued (and/or non-integer) factor or multiple of the symbol time interval duration and/or configured or configurable to be factorizable or representable. The instantaneous guard interval may generally be considered to represent the length or duration of a time interval that may be located or localizable in the time domain between the first signaling and the second signaling.

Program products are also described, which comprise instructions for causing processing circuitry to control and/or perform the methods disclosed herein.

Furthermore, a carrier medium arrangement is proposed, which carries and/or stores a program product as described herein.

The method described herein allows to adapt to the transients that occur when transitioning (go over) (e.g. switching) from one type of signaling (first signaling, which type may be considered as determined by the first set) to a second signaling (which type may be considered as determined by the second set). The method particularly allows distributing code blocks of the same transport block (similar to the frequency first distribution), particularly code blocks of the second signaling, in the frequency domain at the same symbol time intervals, wherein the limited chance of instantaneously impairing their transmission and thus the transmission of the entire transport block is impaired.

Drawings

The drawings are provided to illustrate the concepts and methods described herein and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings comprise:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary transmission timing scenario;

FIG. 2 illustrates a high level exemplary transmission timing scenario;

fig. 3 shows an even more advanced exemplary transmission timing scenario;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary transmission timing scenario including an additional guard period representing an instantaneous guard interval;

FIG. 5 illustrates another exemplary transmission timing scenario including an additional guard period;

FIG. 6 illustrates another exemplary transmission timing scenario including an additional guard period with transient signaling;

fig. 7 illustrates another exemplary transmission timing scenario including an additional guard period and an adapted signaling duration;

figure 8 schematically illustrates an exemplary radio node implemented as a user equipment; and

fig. 9 schematically shows an exemplary radio node implemented as a network node.

Detailed Description

The following description focuses on NR RAN and/or OFDMA/SC-FDMA transmissions by way of example. However, these methods may also be applied to other systems. These examples assume communication between a network node and a User Equipment (UE). However, the communication may be between any kind of radio nodes, e.g. between two UEs or two network nodes, e.g. in a side link or backhaul communication.

Transients can be particularly problematic if the transport block is partitioned into multiple code blocks, for example, if the transport block size exceeds the maximum code block size. The code block may be time-first distributed, e.g., across multiple OFDM symbols (in fact, for a reasonable code block size, the code block may be distributed to all OFDM symbols in a slot/subframe). The code blocks of different transport blocks may be distributed accordingly such that, for example, one OFDM symbol (symbol time interval) may include code blocks associated with multiple transport blocks. This time first mapping provides robustness to time localization impairments. For example, if one OFDM symbol is corrupted, all code blocks mapped thereto will be affected a little but not to the other OFDM symbols to which they are mapped. Since error correction can be done per code block, it is better to damage each code block a little (thus leaving a good chance that error correction may succeed) rather than damaging one code block much, since a failure in a single code block may result in lost transport block reception. The disadvantage of time first mapping is the increased delay: at the transmitter side (almost) all code blocks need to be encoded to construct the first OFDM symbol, increasing the time delay between uplink grant reception and uplink data transmission. At the receiver side, decoding can only start after the last OFDM symbol has been received, since (almost) all code blocks are mapped to all OFDM symbols.

In frequency first mapping, a code block is first mapped to available resource elements within an OFDM symbol, and only if the code block does not fit into one OFDM symbol, it is mapped to multiple OFDM symbols. For high data rates, code blocks are typically confined to a single OFDM symbol (even multiple code blocks may fit into a wide bandwidth), and only at the bandwidth edge, the code blocks stretch across two OFDM symbols. At the transmitter, only one or a few code blocks need to be encoded before the first OFDM symbol is transmitted. At the receiver side, decoding may begin after the OFDM symbol(s) containing the first code block have been received. Temporal localization impairments can severely degrade a single code block, which may make it impossible to successfully decode the code block, resulting in lost transport blocks.

NR defines several signaling types, e.g., signaling types associated with physical channels/signals, which may have short transmission durations, e.g., short PUCCH (1 or 2 symbols), minislot (1 or more symbols), SRS (1 or more symbols), PRACH preamble (1 or more symbols), which may be considered as examples of short signaling or second signaling as described herein. Such signaling may be scheduled/transmitted in a transmission period that also includes other signaling, which may be of one of those types or of another type, e.g., a longer type, and may be earlier in time and/or considered as first signaling. The transmission period may particularly represent or comprise a transmission timing structure (sometimes also referred to as a transmission timing interval), such as a slot or a subframe.

Since these channels (channels of the second signaling) are typically independently power controlled (in particular independently of the first signaling), they may typically be transmitted with variable and/or different powers. Thus, in the transition from one physical channel/signal to another physical channel/signal, from the first signaling to the second signaling, a power change may occur. Transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling may generally include controlling such power changes, for example by controlling the power of the first signaling independently from the power of the second signaling, and/or vice versa, and/or by controlling both powers independently from each other. The power change may be significant, e.g. at least 10%, at least 20% or at least 50% of the power of the first signalling, e.g. an increase or decrease. Such power changes may be based on one or more configurations, such as in different (e.g., independent or separate) power control processes or loops, where a first process or loop may be associated with first signaling and/or a second process or loop may be associated with second signaling.

Power Amplifiers (PAs) of radio circuits (e.g., transmitter chains) cannot change their power levels, e.g., from one power level to another, or on/off, infinitely fast. The PA output power gradually approaches the target power level instead of intermediate power level switching. Most of this power change occurs within a so-called transient time (also called circuit switching time). The gradient of the power change is usually unspecified and cannot be easily determined by the receiver. Further, the phase of the output signal may change during the transient time. For NR, it can be considered that the transient time is about 10 μ s for <6 GHz, and about 5 μ s for above 6 GHz.

A similar problem may occur if the frequency allocation changes, such as the total allocated bandwidth and/or the location of the allocated bandwidth (e.g., as indicated by the number of subcarriers and/or the location of the subcarriers in the frequency domain). One example where this may occur includes frequency hopping between signaling or signaling components. If hopping (hopping) occurs within the configured UE bandwidth, the instantaneous time may be short but still larger than zero, e.g. if the UE needs to switch filters and/or needs to reduce power to achieve out-of-band-emission after frequency hopping (out-of-band-emission) and/or has to adapt its oscillator. If the frequency hopping is done outside the UE-configured bandwidth, the UE may have to retune its local oscillator, which may also result in-usually longer-instantaneous times.

If the UE transmits one physical channel/signal and another physical channel/signal is activated during the transmission duration, the total output power changes if the power of the first signal is not reduced (which is not desirable). Therefore, transient phenomena can also occur in this case. The same applies if the UE transmits multiple physical channels/signals and one or more signals stop earlier than another signal.

OFDMA-based communication systems require that all received transmissions (e.g., at the network node) be aligned in time, otherwise orthogonality between the OFDM subcarriers is lost.

Transmission time t according to signaling from transmitter₀(considered as transmitter timing), e.g., downlink signaling from a network node (e.g., eBN or gNB), the signaling going up to

Seconds (d denotes the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, e.g., the distance between the gNB and the UE, c is the speed of light in vacuum), as illustrated in the first and second rows in fig. 1.

If it is notThe receiver (UE) will send its uplink signaling (e.g., first signaling or second signaling, or other signaling) based on the timing, it will offset (delay) with respect to the timing of the network node (transmitter timing)

(round trip time) to the network node. Signals transmitted from UEs located at different distances from the transmitter/network node may arrive at different times and lose orthogonality.

Thus, each UE is instructed to advance its transmission timing using a Timing Advance (TA) command indicating a timing advance value, which may be considered to represent a timing offset. If the timing advance command (respectively TA value) is set to

The uplink signal reaches exactly the UL-DL switching point as illustrated in the middle two rows in fig. 1. A real radio node (e.g., a network node) cannot instantaneously switch from receiving (e.g., reception of uplink signaling) to transmitting (e.g., transmission of downlink signaling), or vice versa. Thus, the UE may be configured with a specific round trip time

Slightly greater timing advance

WhereinTA ₀Is the time at which the uplink should end before the downlink starts (or vice versa; this may be adapted to handover in the radio node). This is illustrated in the last two rows in fig. 1.

In particular, fig. 1 shows an exemplary a) downlink transmission timing at a network node; b) downlink reception timing at the UE; c) an uplink transmission timing at the UE having a timing advance matching the round trip time; d) an uplink receive timing at the network node having a timing advance matching the round trip time; e) uplink transmission timing at the UE with a timing advance slightly greater than the round trip time; f) there is an uplink receive timing at the network node with a timing advance slightly greater than the round trip time.

The UE (receiver) may also need a guard time to receive uplink transmissions from the downlink. This time is denoted T in fig. 2_DL→UL. The maximum possible timing advance can be calculated as

Wherein T is_ULAnd T_UL,TXThe length of the uplink period and the duration of the actual uplink transmission, respectively.

In particular, fig. 2 shows a) the downlink transmission timing at the network node; b) downlink reception timing at the UE; c) an uplink transmission timing with a maximum possible timing advance at the UE; d) uplink reception timing at a network node.

To "make room (make space)" for timing advance and required guard period at DL → UL handover (UE) and UL → DL handover (at network node), actual uplink transmission T_UL,TXMay be typically a short integer number of symbol durations. The smallest possible difference is

Wherein n =1, and T_OFDMIs an OFDM symbol duration (symbol time interval or length) that may include a cyclic prefix. NR supports mixed parameter set transmission, e.g. with different parameter sets used between uplink and downlink, so in principle it is possible to envisage that the uplink transmission consists of OFDM symbols with a different symbol duration than the downlink transmission. In one exemplary scenario, one symbol in the uplink transmission may be replaced by two OFDM symbols of half-nominal symbol duration. Then, one of the half-symbols may be used for transmission while the other half-symbol is not transmitted to create a guard period required for timing advance and switching time。

By a minimum value

Maximum timing advance becomes

Or equivalently, the maximum supported distance between the transmitter and the receiver (e.g., network node and UE) may be

. For larger distances, a single null OFDM may be too short. In contrast, n OFDM symbols may be left empty; with n null OFDM symbols, the maximum distance becomes

。

The formula may be generalized such that the guard period is created by (a mixture of) null OFDM symbols of different durations, e.g. depending on the parameter set.

During the instantaneous time, the channel estimates obtained from the reference signals may be invalid or unreliable. The receiver cannot (or at most rarely) utilize the information contained in the transient period. If a code block is transmitted during a transient period, the decoding of that code block will often fail (at least if the transient overlaps the code block by more than a threshold), and thus the decoding of the associated transport block will also fail. This reduces throughput and increases delay.

Feedback signaling (e.g., acknowledgement signaling or HARD signaling) per Code Block Group (CBG) (e.g., per code block group HARQ feedback) may be considered. In this context, the decoding success/failure of each group of code blocks may be signaled to the transmitter. However, operations with such overhead may be undesirable or supplemented by methods that improve code block decoding (e.g., methods related to the transient guard interval as described herein).

In particular, if the instantaneous time overlaps with a short transmission (e.g., 1 or 2 symbols), most of the transmission may be disturbed and decoding/demodulation will be poor. In NR, multiple transmissions or signaling (e.g., multiple physical channels/signals) with short transmission durations may follow each other, and/or at least one may be adjacent or adjacent to long (longer) signaling, e.g., a data channel to which frequency is mapped first, and/or PUSCH or long PUSCH signaling. Such transmission or signaling may be located in one time slot (in the time domain) or across two adjacent time slots. In particular, short signaling may be very sensitive to transient periods (or, in general, time-localized disturbances) and may occur one after the other, e.g. adjacent in time.

In general, it may be considered to insert an instantaneous guard interval (e.g. guard period) between different signalling (e.g. different physical channels/signals), in particular adjacent signalling (scheduled to be adjacent), in time, where the later (second) signalling may be short (e.g. 3 or fewer symbol time intervals). This may be considered at least for some combinations for which the instant time cannot overlap with the start/end of any adjacent signal (e.g., physical channel/signal). The instantaneous guard interval may be considered in the context of one or more timing advance values for associated signaling.

The instantaneous guard interval can generally be considered silent if no signaling (in particular modulation signaling) is expected/transmitted (by the node transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling) therein. Such transient guard intervals may also be referred to as spatial intervals or as guard periods.

Instead of or in addition to the guard period (time interval without a modulated signal in the time domain, however, there may be a power tail from a previous/subsequent transmission), other intervals may be considered, such as a cyclic interval, which may include an extended cyclic prefix of the next symbol, a cyclic suffix of the previous symbol, a mixture of cyclic prefix and suffix. Alternatively or additionally, the instantaneous protection interval may be filled in consideration of known and/or configured and/or predefined signal/signaling patterns.

For small cells with small timing advance (and grants)How many short transmissions may be limited to small cells by the link budget) this extra guard period (or more generally the instantaneous guard interval) does not cause overhead because it is simply consumed from the extra timing advance budget that is not used for small cells (or more generally for small distances between the transmitter and the receiver). Although, for larger cells or distances, the uplink transmission duration T is needed where a larger timing advance is required_UL,TXIt may be necessary to reduce one or more symbols (alternatively, the gap T may be increased by omitting one or more downlink symbols_UL）。

Thus, the network node (or, in general, the radio configuring the other) may be adapted to consider the following operations: 1) determining one or more instantaneous guard intervals required between transmissions, and/or 2) determining a required timing advance, and/or 3) determining a required difference between gaps in downlink and uplink transmission durations, in particular

And/or 4) signaling the UE gap length and/or uplink transmission duration, which are configured accordingly, respectively. One or more of these steps may be included for configuring the radio node with the instantaneous configuration.

According to the methods described herein, the transient period may occur (at least partially) outside the actual transmission duration of the signaling, e.g., on a physical channel/signal, which improves performance. This may be particularly useful for short duration transmissions and/or signaling or physical channels where frequencies are mapped first.

Fig. 3 shows an uplink transmission comprising two parts, the first part representing the first signalling and the second part representing the second signalling. The two portions have different sets of characteristics (e.g., transmit power, bandwidth allocation) resulting in an instantaneous time at the transition point. In particular, the signal does not change instantaneously from the first portion to the second portion. Examples of the first part/signaling and the second part/signaling include: PUSCH, long PUCCH, or micro-slot for the first part/signaling, and short PUCCH, SRS, micro-slot for the second part/signaling.

In particular, fig. 3 shows that the uplink transmission (e.g. in a time slot) contains two physical channels/signals, respectively a first signaling UL1 and a second signaling UL 2.

An additional guard period, or more generally, an instantaneous guard interval, may be inserted between the two portions, as shown in fig. 4. When comparing fig. 3 and fig. 4, it can be seen that the maximum timing advance TA_maxAnd is now smaller. However, as long as the required timing advance is less than TA of FIG. 4_maxNo additional overhead is incurred. To support the same TA as in FIG. 3_maxDuration of downlink gap T_ULOr uplink transmission duration T_UL,TXNeed to be shortened and/or configured accordingly.

In fig. 5, the uplink transmission is shortened and now the same timing advance as in fig. 3 is supported, at the cost of higher overhead for the corresponding configuration.

In particular, fig. 4 shows an additional guard period inserted between uplink transmissions UL1 and UL 2. Fig. 5 shows an additional guard period inserted between uplink transmissions UL1 and UL 2. To support the same timing advance (cell size) as in fig. 3, UL1 is shortened. The instantaneous configuration can be determined and/or configured accordingly.

It should be noted that the network node (or more generally the radio node) may be considered to be adapted to operate based on its determined instantaneous configuration, and/or may be considered to operate, even though the configuration may be used to configure another node. Different instantaneous configurations may be determined and/or configured for different UEs (or second radio nodes).

If the UE has uplink transmissions UL1 and UL2, requiring an additional guard period between them, the network or network node may configure the additional guard period (instantaneous guard interval) between UL1 and UL2 to the UE/signal the additional guard period (instantaneous guard interval) between UL1 and UL2 to the UE. This may in principle be done dynamically, e.g. with downlink control signalling. However, the UE may be configured to insert such an additional guard period or instantaneous guard interval between UL1 and UL2, whenever the UE is to transmit a signal combination UL1 and UL2, which may be considered, for example, predetermined or configured to require an additional guard period or instantaneous guard interval therebetween. As previously mentioned, OFDMA requires synchronized uplink transmissions. Therefore, it is generally considered that the network is responsible for ensuring that concurrent uplink transmissions from different UEs that the network wishes to time align use the same timing structure. Such an additional guard period would not be required for a second UE transmitting only UL1 (or UL 2), however, in order to maintain orthogonality with a first UE transmitting UL1 and UL2, even the second UE may use a timing structure with the additional guard period. In this case, it can be considered that even a UE transmitting only UL1 (or UL 2) should use a timing structure with an additional guard period. For example, the UE may be configured with an instantaneous configuration indicating a number of timing structures and/or instantaneous guard intervals (which may also include intervals of 0 length, indicating that no instantaneous guard interval is to be inserted). In a simple case, the configuration may indicate two timing structures: one with an extra guard period and the other without an extra guard period. Additional configuration or control signaling, e.g., dynamic signaling (e.g., control signaling such as DCI or using uplink grants) may indicate which timing structure to use. This can be seen as configuring the UE with an instantaneous configuration, e.g. with different messages indicating multiple timing structures and indicating which one to use for a particular occasion. The transient configuration may be considered to indicate one or more transient guard intervals and/or to comprise an indicator indicating one of more than one (e.g. predefined or configured or configurable) transient guard intervals for transmitting the first signalling and/or the second signalling for inserting between these two signalling and/or before the (second) signalling, respectively.

If the UE transmits UL1 and UL2, no explicit signaling is needed, as the UE may implicitly know that it should insert an additional guard period, since it transmits both UL1 and UL 2. However, another UE transmitting only UL1 or UL2 would likely need an explicit indication, in particular for transmitting signaling that does not start in the first symbol of the transmission timing structure (e.g., slot). This explicit indication may be included in the uplink grant itself, or on a common channel (such as the group common PDCCH discussed by NR). If an explicit indication is transmitted in the uplink grant, it may be preferable to always include the indicator (even if the UE transmits UL1 and UL 2) to avoid additional blind decoding when decoding the PDCCH.

Thus, as an addition or alternative to the above, a method of operating (configuring) a radio node in a radio access network may be considered. The method comprises the following steps: the user equipment (or more generally, the second radio node) is configured with an instantaneous backoff configuration indicating that an instantaneous backoff interval is to be inserted in the time domain before signaling is to be transmitted by the user equipment (or the second radio node). The signaling may be second signaling as described herein. The instantaneous compensation configuration and/or interval may be determined based on an instantaneous guard interval or configuration, which may have been determined and/or configured to the user equipment/second radio node, or for a different second radio node or user equipment. In some cases, the instantaneous compensation interval may be equal in duration to the instantaneous guard interval. However, when determining the compensation interval, different timing advances and/or distances and/or operating conditions may be taken into account, so that it does not necessarily equal the instantaneous interval in all cases. Furthermore, a (configured) radio node for a radio access network is disclosed. The radio node is adapted to configure the user equipment (or second radio node) with an instantaneous compensation configuration as described herein. The (configured) radio node may comprise and/or be adapted to utilize processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transceiver and/or a transmitter, for such configuration. Alternatively or additionally, it may comprise a configuration module for such a configuration. The (configured) radio node may be a radio node as described herein and/or a radio node provided with an instantaneous configuration or an instantaneous guard interval based on which an instantaneous compensation configuration is determined and/or configured. A second radio node or user equipment for the RAN may also be considered, which may be adapted to communicate signaling based on the instantaneous compensation configuration as described herein. Further, a method of operating a second radio node or user equipment in a RAN may be considered, wherein the method may comprise transmitting signaling based on the transient backoff configuration described herein.

Inserting an instantaneous guard interval, e.g., an extra guard period, may require and/or include and/or be based on being configured and/or considering a larger uplink gap T_ULOr shorter uplink transmission duration T_UL,TXFor example, when the associated timing advance may become too large. It may be considered that the network (e.g. radio node or network node) is responsible for keeping track of this and/or configuring/signaling the UE a longer downlink gap duration T_ULOr shorter uplink transmission T_UL,TX(e.g., by shortening UL1 and/or UL 2). The instantaneous configuration may thus be considered to indicate a shortened duration for the first signaling or the second signaling, e.g. shorter than scheduled. In this regard, the instantaneous configuration may be considered to override scheduling, particularly if the scheduling is provided with a message other than an indication of a shortened duration typically associated with such signaling or uplink transmission. In this context, it may be considered that scheduling may involve a duration different from the uplink transmission duration. For example, the uplink transmission duration may represent a time interval (period) that may generally allow for uplink transmission, and the scheduled interval may be included therein, but does not have to fill it or reach its end in the time domain. In some cases, the uplink transmission duration may represent a transmission period, or in general, a period that may be longer than the scheduled duration, and/or a transmission timing structure. In practice, if the scheduled signaling reaches the end of such a period, it may only be necessary to shorten it.

In general, instead of inserting an extra guard period (silent or null), the same time duration may be filled with an extended cyclic prefix from the next symbol (i.e. the cyclic prefix of the first symbol of UL2 is extended), or a cyclic suffix of the last previous symbol (i.e. the cyclic suffix is added to the last symbol of UL 1), or a mix of both options. This is illustrated in fig. 6. It is contemplated that this additional guard period is filled with a predefined padding sequence (as an example of a signaling pattern). An extended cyclic prefix may be used or a predefined sequence using the same frequency allocation and power as UL 2. The additional guard period (instantaneous guard interval) may be considered to capture most of the instantaneous period, and therefore it is beneficial to leave the additional guard period unmodulated or to fill it with a signal having physical properties (one or more characteristics of the third set, such as power, frequency location, bandwidth) similar to or corresponding to, for example, UL 2.

In particular, fig. 6 shows the case where the instantaneous guard interval (respectively the extra guard period) between uplink transmissions UL1 and UL2 comprises a signaling sequence, which may be considered to represent a pattern and/or modulated signaling.

So far, the case of two transmissions UL1 and UL2 and one extra guard period has been described. However, this concept can be easily generalized to more uplink transmissions and additional guard periods or instantaneous guard intervals, which may be the same or different in duration, e.g., depending on the difference in the set of characteristics between consecutive signaling instances (e.g., between each signaling instance and the signaling instance immediately preceding in time).

In an alternative view of the method described so far, it may be considered that the UE (or the second radio node) may be configured with e.g. multiple timing advance values per carrier, e.g. one per signalling or signalling type (e.g. uplink physical channel/signal). The type may include one or more different signaling and/or relate to one or more different channels, e.g., in a group, e.g., based on time duration. For example, signaling of the same duration, or within a range of durations, or above or below a threshold duration may be grouped together to indicate the type of signaling in this context, e.g., based on the duration by number of symbols. For each group, a timing advance value may be configured, for example by instantaneous configuration. It can be considered that signalling, e.g. uplink physical channels/signals, can be grouped with one timing advance value per uplink physical channel/signal group, in particular signalling like uplink physical channels/signals in the same group share the same timing advance value.

FIG. 7 illustrates the use of a timing advance value TA_UL2UL2 transmitted while timing advance is used

UL1 is transmitted. Value of

May be at least as large as the minimum required duration of the additional guard period.

Can be considered to represent a transient guard interval.

In particular, FIG. 7 illustrates the use of a timing advance value TA_UL2The physical channel/signal UL2 is transmitted. By using

Transmitting physical channel/signal UL1, poor

Indicating an additional guard period between UL1 and UL 2.

Fig. 8 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal or a wireless device 10, which may particularly be implemented as a UE (user equipment). The radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which processing circuitry 20 may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, such as the communication module or the determination module, may be implemented in the processing circuit 20 and/or executable by the processing circuit 20, in particular as a module in a controller. The radio node 10 further comprises radio circuitry 22 (e.g. one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers) providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality, the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to processing circuitry. The antenna circuit 24 of the radio node 10 is connected or connectable to the radio circuit 22 for collecting or transmitting and/or amplifying signals. The radio circuit 22 and the processing circuit 20 controlling it are configured for cellular communication with a network, such as the RAN described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. The radio node 10 may generally be adapted to perform any of the methods of operating a radio node, such as a terminal or UE, disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules.

Fig. 9 schematically shows a radio node 100, which radio node 100 may particularly be implemented as a network node 100, e.g. an eNB for NR or a gNB or the like. The radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 120, which processing circuitry 120 may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any of the modules of the node 100, such as the transmitting module and/or the receiving module and/or the configuration module, may be implemented in the processing circuit 120 and/or executable by the processing circuit 120. The processing circuit 120 is connected to a control radio circuit 122 of the node 100, which control radio circuit 122 provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiver functionality (e.g. comprising one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers). The antenna circuit 124 may be connected or connectable to the radio circuit 122 for signal reception or transmission and/or amplification. The node 10 may generally be adapted to perform any of the methods disclosed herein for operating a radio node or a network node; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuit 124 may be connected to and/or include an antenna array. The node 100, respectively circuitry thereof, may be adapted to perform any method of operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry and/or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprise communication circuitry, e.g. for communicating with another network node, such as a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or the internet or a local network, in particular with an information system, which may provide information and/or data to be transmitted to a user equipment.

References to specific resource structures, such as transmission timing structures and/or symbols and/or time slots and/or minislots and/or subcarriers and/or carriers, may refer to specific sets of parameters, which may be predefined and/or configured or configurable. The transmission timing structure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of transmission timing structures are Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs), subframes, slots and minislots. A slot may comprise a predetermined (e.g. predefined and/or configured or configurable) number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A minislot may comprise a smaller number of symbols (which may in particular be configurable or configured) than the number of symbols of a slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. The transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a particular length, which may depend on the symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. The transmission timing structure may relate to and/or cover a specific time interval in the time stream, e.g. for communication synchronization. Timing structures, such as time slots and/or minislots, used and/or scheduled for transmission may be scheduled relative to and/or in synchronization with timing structures provided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such a transmission timing structure may define a timing grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within each structure representing a minimum timing unit. Such a timing grid may be defined, for example, by slots or subframes (where a subframe may be considered a particular variant of a slot in some cases). The transmission timing structure may have a duration (length in time) determined based on the duration of its symbols, possibly in addition to the cyclic prefix or prefixes used. The symbols of the transmission timing structure may have the same duration, or in some variations may have different durations. The number of symbols in the transmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or dependent on the set of parameters. The timing of the minislots may be generally configured or configurable, particularly by the network and/or network nodes. The timing may be configurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, in particular one or more time slots.

The program product is generally considered to comprise instructions adapted to cause the processing and/or control circuitry to perform and/or control any of the methods described herein, in particular when executed on the processing and/or control circuitry. Furthermore, a carrier medium arrangement is considered, which carries and/or stores the program product as described herein.

The carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media. Generally, the carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/or receivable by the processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or program products and/or code may be viewed as carrying data and/or program product and/or code portions. The carrier medium may typically comprise a guide/transmission medium and/or a storage medium. The guiding/transmission medium may be adapted to carry and/or store signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electrical signals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. The carrier medium, in particular the guiding/transmission medium, may be adapted to guide such signals to carry them. The carrier medium, in particular the guiding/transmission medium, may comprise an electromagnetic field, such as radio waves or microwaves, and/or an optically transparent material, such as glass fibers, and/or a cable. The storage medium may include at least one of memory, buffer, cache, optical disk, magnetic storage, flash memory, and the like, which may be volatile or non-volatile.

In general, the parameter set and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate the bandwidth of the subcarriers of a carrier (in the frequency domain), and/or the number of subcarriers in a carrier. Different sets of parameters may be particularly different across the bandwidth of the subcarriers. In some variations, all subcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated with them. The parameter set and/or subcarrier spacing may differ between carriers, particularly with respect to subcarrier bandwidth. The symbol time length and/or the time length related to the timing structure of the carriers may depend on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the parameter set. In particular, different parameter sets may have different symbol time lengths.

The signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. The indication may represent signaling and/or be implemented as a signal or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling, particularly control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages that may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different signaling procedures, e.g., representing and/or relating to one or more such procedures and/or corresponding information. The indication may comprise signalling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be included therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different acknowledgement signalling procedures, e.g. indicative of and/or relating to one or more such procedures. Signaling associated with a channel may be transmitted such that signaling and/or information representing the channel is conveyed and/or interpreted by a transmitter and/or receiver as belonging to the channel. Such signaling may generally conform to transmission parameters and/or one or more formats for the channel.

The signal strength may be represented by a power or power level, and/or an energy or energy level, and/or an amplitude, distributed (e.g., over time) over, for example, a transmission timing structure or interval (e.g., a slot or a minislot), or a time interval (e.g., one or more symbols) associated with signaling of signal strength, respectively. The signal strength may be expressed absolutely and/or relatively and/or based on a peak indication or total strength (e.g., total power).

The reference signaling may be signaling that includes one or more reference symbols and/or structures. The reference signaling may be adapted to determine and/or estimate and/or represent transmission conditions, such as channel conditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. The transmission characteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulation and/or timing) of the reference signaling may be considered available to both the transmitter and the receiver of the signaling (e.g., as predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or communicated). Different types of reference signaling may be considered, e.g. related to uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular cell-wide, e.g. CRS) or device or user-specific (addressed to a specific target or user equipment, e.g. CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g. DMRS) and/or signal strength-related, e.g. power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g. SRS or pilot signaling) and/or phase-related, etc.

The uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) or SC-FDMA (single carrier frequency division multiple access) signaling. The downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMA signaling. However, the signaling is not limited thereto (filter bank based signaling may be considered as an alternative).

A radio node may generally be seen as a device or node adapted for wireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/or communication using an air interface, e.g. according to a communication standard.

The radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or a terminal. The network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, such as a base station and/or a gsnodeb (gNB) and/or an eNodeB (eNB) and/or a relay node and/or a micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or other nodes, in particular also for the RAN described herein.

In the context of the present disclosure, the terms wireless device, User Equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered interchangeable. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent a terminal device that communicates using a wireless communication network and/or be implemented as user equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipment may include a phone, such as a smartphone, a personal communication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular a laptop, a sensor or machine having radio capabilities (and/or adapted for an air interface), in particular for MTC (machine type communication, sometimes also referred to as M2M machine to machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. The user equipment or terminal may be mobile or fixed.

The radio node may typically comprise processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry. In some cases, a radio node, in particular a network node, may comprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry with which it may be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a core network.

The circuit may comprise an integrated circuit. The processing circuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers) and/or ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) and/or FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), etc. It can be considered that the processing circuitry comprises and/or is (operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memory arrangements. The memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. The memory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples for memory include volatile and non-volatile memory and/or Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or Read Only Memory (ROM) and/or magnetic and/or optical memory and/or flash memory and/or hard disk memory and/or EPROM or EEPROM (erasable programmable ROM or electrically erasable programmable ROM).

The radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers (which may be operable or operable as both transmitters and receivers, and/or may comprise combined or separate circuitry for receiving and transmitting, for example in one package or housing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillators and/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to, antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays. The antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may be arranged in a dimensional array, e.g. a 2D or 3D array, and/or an antenna panel. A Radio Remote Head (RRH) may be considered an example of an antenna array. However, in some variations, the RRHs may also be implemented as network nodes, depending on the kind of circuitry and/or functionality implemented therein.

The communication circuit may include a radio circuit and/or a cable circuit. The communication circuitry may generally comprise one or more interfaces, which may be one or more air interfaces and/or one or more cable interfaces and/or one or more optical interfaces, such as a laser-based interface. The one or more interfaces may be packet-based, in particular. The cable circuitry and/or cable interface may include and/or be connected or connectable to one or more cables (e.g., fiber-based and/or wire-based) that may be connected or connectable to a target directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces), e.g., controlled by communication circuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may be associated with different components of the radio node, e.g. different circuits or different parts of circuits. Modules may be considered to be distributed over different components and/or circuits. A program product as described herein may include modules related to an apparatus (e.g., a user equipment or a network node) on which the program product is intended to be executed (which execution may be performed on and/or controlled by associated circuitry).

The radio access network may be a wireless communication network and/or may be a Radio Access Network (RAN), in particular according to a communication standard. The communication standard may particularly be a standard evolved according to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE.

The wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/or wireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a core network. The methods described herein are particularly suitable for 5G networks, such as their subsequent LTE evolution and/or NR (new air interface), respectively. The RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/or one or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. The network node may particularly be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. The terminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with or within the RAN, such as a User Equipment (UE) or a mobile phone or a smartphone or a computing device or a vehicle communication device or a device for Machine Type Communication (MTC) or the like. The terminal may be mobile or in some cases fixed. The RAN or wireless communication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. A wireless communication network or system, such as a RAN or RAN system, may be considered generally to comprise at least one radio node and/or at least one network node and at least one terminal.

The transmission in the downlink may involve transmission from the network or network node to the terminal. The transmission in the uplink may involve transmission from the terminal to the network or network node. Transmission in a sidelink may involve (direct) transmission from one terminal to another. Uplink, downlink, and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered as communication directions. In some variations, uplink and downlink may also be used to describe wireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhaul and/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication, e.g. communication between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communication terminated here. Backhaul and/or relay communications and/or network communications may be considered to be implemented in the form of sidelink or uplink communications or the like.

Control information or control information messages or corresponding signaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel, e.g., a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (or in some cases a sidelink channel, e.g., one UE schedules another UE). For example, the control information/allocation information may be signaled by the network node on PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) and/or PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) and/or HARQ specific channels. Acknowledgement signalling, e.g. in the form of uplink control information, may be transmitted by the terminal on PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) and/or PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) and/or HARQ specific channels. Multiple channels may be applied for multi-component/multi-carrier indication or signaling.

Signaling can generally be considered to represent electromagnetic wave structures (e.g., over time intervals and frequency intervals) intended to convey information to at least one specific or general (e.g., anyone who may pick up the signaling) target. The signaling may include transmitting signaling. The transmission signaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling, e.g. including or representing acknowledgement signaling and/or resource request information, may comprise coding and/or modulation. The encoding and/or modulation may include error detection decoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling. Receiving the control signaling may include corresponding decoding and/or demodulation. Error detection decoding may include and/or be based on parity or checksum methods, such as CRC (cyclic redundancy check). Forward error correction coding may include and/or be based on, for example, turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar coding and/or LDPC coding (low density parity check). The type of decoding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) with which the decoded signal is associated.

The communication signaling may include, and/or be represented by, and/or implemented as data signaling and/or user plane signaling. The communication signaling may be associated with a data channel, such as a physical downlink channel or a physical uplink channel or a physical sidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) or a psch (physical sidelink shared channel). In general, the data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. The data signaling may be signaling associated with and/or on a data channel.

The indication may generally explicitly and/or implicitly indicate the information it represents and/or indicates. The implicit indication may be based on, for example, a location and/or resources used for the transmission. The explicit indication may be based on, for example, a parameter variable having one or more parameters and/or one or more indices and/or one or more bit patterns representing information. It is specifically contemplated that the control signaling described herein implicitly indicates a control signaling type based on the utilized resource sequence.

The resource elements may generally describe the smallest individually available and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/or demodulatable time-frequency resources and/or may describe time-frequency resources covering a symbol time length in time and subcarriers in frequency. The signal may be allocable and/or allocated to a resource element. The subcarriers may be subbands of a carrier, such as defined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or a frequency band for transmission and/or reception. In some variations, the signal (joint coding/modulation) may cover more than one resource element. The resource elements may typically be as defined by the corresponding standard (e.g. NR or LTE). Since the symbol time length and/or the subcarrier spacing (and/or the set of parameters) may differ between different symbols and/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have different spreading (length/width) in the time and/or frequency domain, in particular relating to resource elements of different carriers.

The resources may generally represent time-frequency and/or code resources on which signaling (e.g., according to a particular format) may be communicated, e.g., transmitted and/or received, and/or intended to be transmitted and/or received.

Boundary symbols may generally represent a start symbol or an end symbol for transmission and/or reception. The start symbol may in particular be a start symbol for uplink or sidelink signaling, e.g. control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on a data channel or control channel, e.g., on a physical channel, in particular on a physical uplink shared channel (such as PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or on a physical uplink control channel (such as PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel. If the start symbol is associated with control signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signaling may be responsive to received signaling (in a sidelink or downlink), e.g., indicating acknowledgement signaling associated with the control signaling, which may be HARQ or ARQ signaling. The end symbol may represent an end symbol (in time) of a downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which may be intended or scheduled for a radio node or user equipment. Such downlink signaling may particularly be data signaling, e.g. on a physical downlink channel such as a shared channel (e.g. PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel)). The start symbol may be determined based on and/or relative to such an end symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment, may mean that the radio node is adapted to, or caused to, or set up and/or instruct to operate according to the configuration. The configuration may be done by another apparatus, e.g. a network node (e.g. a radio node of the network, such as a base station or eNodeB) or the network, in which case it may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent a configuration to be configured and/or comprise one or more instructions relating to the configuration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocated resources, in particular frequency resources. The radio node may configure itself, e.g. based on configuration data received from the network or network node. The network node may utilize and/or be adapted to utilize one or more circuits thereof for configuration. The allocation information may be considered in the form of configuration data. The configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or one or more messages.

In general, configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing (e.g., transmitting) the configuration data to one or more other nodes (in parallel and/or sequentially), which may further transmit the configuration data to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until the configuration data reaches the wireless device). Alternatively or additionally, configuring the radio node, e.g. by a network node or other means, may comprise: for example receiving configuration data from another node like a network node (which may be a higher level node of the network) and/or with data relating to the configuration data, and/or transmitting the received configuration data to the radio node. Thus, determining the configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface (e.g. the X2 interface in case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR). Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, for the terminal and/or configuring resources and/or resource pools therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be adjacent to another resource structure in the frequency domain if the resource structure and the other resource structure share a common boundary frequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency boundary and the other as a lower frequency boundary. Such a boundary may be represented, for example, by the upper end of the bandwidth assigned to subcarrier n, which also represents the lower end of the bandwidth assigned to subcarrier n + 1. A resource structure may be considered to be adjacent to another resource structure in the time domain if the resource structure and the other resource structure share a common boundary time, e.g. one as an upper (i.e. right in the figure) boundary and the other as a lower (i.e. left in the figure) boundary. Such a boundary may be represented, for example, by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to symbol n, which also represents the beginning of the symbol time interval assigned to symbol n + 1.

In general, a resource structure being adjacent to another resource structure in a domain may also be referred to as adjoining and/or contiguous to another resource structure in the domain.

The resource structure may generally represent a structure in the time and/or frequency domain, in particular a time interval and a frequency interval. The resource structure may comprise and/or consist of resource elements and/or the time intervals of the resource structure may comprise and/or consist of one or more symbol time intervals and/or the frequency intervals of the resource structure may comprise and/or consist of one or more subcarriers. Resource elements may be considered as examples of resource structures, and slots or minislots or Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) or portions thereof may be considered as other examples. The resource structure may be associated with a specific channel, e.g. a PUSCH or PUCCH, in particular a resource structure smaller than a slot or PRB.

The carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/or relate to a center frequency and an associated frequency interval. A carrier may be considered to comprise a plurality of subcarriers. A carrier may have been assigned its center frequency or center frequency spacing, e.g., as represented by one or more subcarriers (each subcarrier may typically be assigned a frequency bandwidth or spacing). The different carriers may be non-overlapping and/or may be adjacent in the frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term "radio" in this disclosure may be considered to relate generally to wireless communication and may also include wireless communication using microwaves and/or millimeters and/or other frequencies, in particular frequencies between 100 MHz or 1 GHz and 100GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilize one or more carriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generally be any device adapted to transmit and/or receive radio and/or wireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may include a carrier (which may be referred to as an LBT carrier) that is accessed based on an LBT procedure, e.g., an unlicensed carrier. The carriers may be considered part of carrier aggregation.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting using a frequency (band) or spectrum associated with the cell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission (referred to as UL carrier) and at least one carrier for DL communication/transmission (referred to as DL carrier). It can be considered that a cell includes different numbers of UL carriers and DL carriers. Alternatively or additionally, the cell may include at least one carrier for UL and DL communications/transmissions, e.g., in a TDD-based approach.

The channels may typically be logical channels, transport channels, or physical channels. A channel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular on a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or used for carrying control signaling/control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries control plane information. Similarly, a channel carrying and/or used for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for a particular communication direction, or for two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in both directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one in each direction. Examples of channels include channels for low latency and/or high reliability transmissions, in particular channels for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), which may be used for control and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated with a symbol time length, which may depend on a carrier and/or subcarrier spacing and/or a parameter set associated with the carrier. Thus, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length relative to the frequency domain. The symbol time length may depend on the carrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or parameter set and/or subcarrier spacing of the symbol or be associated with the symbol. Thus, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, parameter sets with different subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time lengths. In general, the symbol time length may be based on and/or include a guard time interval or cyclic extension, such as a prefix or suffix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and/or terminals, wherein data is communicated between participants (UEs and/or terminals) via the communication channel, e.g., directly and/or without relaying via a network node. The sidelink may be established solely and/or directly via one or more air interfaces of the participants, which may be directly linked via sidelink communication channels. In some variations, the sidelink communications may be performed without network node interaction, e.g., on fixedly defined resources and/or on resources negotiated between participants. Alternatively or additionally, it may be considered that the network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pools, for sidelink communication and/or monitoring sidelinks, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communications may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communications, and/or in some cases as ProSe (proximity services) communications, for example in the context of LTE. The side link may be implemented in the context of V2x communications (vehicle communications), such as V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2I (vehicle-to-facility), and/or V2P (vehicle-to-person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or a terminal.

The sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more (e.g., physical or logical) channels, such as a PSCCH (physical sidelink control channel, which may carry control information such as acknowledgement location indications, for example) and/or a PSCCH (physical sidelink shared channel, which may carry data and/or acknowledgement signaling, for example). A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may be considered to relate to and/or use one or more carriers and/or one or more frequency ranges associated with and/or used by cellular communications, for example, according to a particular grant and/or standard. The participants may share (physical) channels and/or resources, in particular in the frequency domain and/or in relation to frequency resources (e.g. carriers) of the sidelink, such that two or more participants transmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously and/or time shifted, and/or there may be specific channels and/or resources associated with a specific participant, such that e.g. only one participant transmits on a specific channel or on one or more specific resources, e.g. in the frequency domain and/or in relation to one or more carriers or subcarriers.

The sidelink may conform to and/or be implemented in accordance with a particular standard, such as an LTE-based standard and/or NR. The sidelinks may utilize TDD (time division duplex) and/or FDD (frequency division duplex) techniques, e.g., configured by the network node, and/or preconfigured and/or negotiated between participants. A user equipment may be considered suitable for sidelink communication if it and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry is adapted to utilize a sidelink, e.g. over one or more frequency ranges and/or carriers, and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to a particular standard. A radio access network can be generally considered to be defined by two participants of a sidelink communication. Alternatively or additionally, the radio access network may be represented and/or defined with and/or involving network nodes, and/or be in communication with such nodes.

Communicating or communicating may generally include transmitting and/or receiving signaling. Communication on the sidelink (or sidelink signaling) may include utilizing the sidelink for communication (respectively for signaling). Sidelink transmissions and/or transmissions on sidelinks may be considered to include transmissions utilizing sidelinks (e.g., associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuits and/or air interfaces). Sidelink reception and/or reception on a sidelink may be considered to include reception using a sidelink (e.g., associated resources and/or transport format and/or circuitry and/or air interface). Sidelink control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to include control information conveyed using sidelink.

In general, Carrier Aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of radio connections and/or communication links between a wireless and/or cellular communication network and/or a network node and a terminal, or on a side link comprising multiple carriers for at least one transmission direction (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to aggregation of carriers. The corresponding communication link may be referred to as a carrier aggregation communication link or a CA communication link; the carriers in carrier aggregation may be referred to as Component Carriers (CCs). In such a link, data may be transmitted on more than one carrier and/or all carriers of a carrier aggregation (aggregation of carriers). Carrier aggregation may include one (or more) dedicated control carrier(s) over which control information may be transmitted and/or a primary carrier (which may be referred to, for example, as a primary component carrier or PCC), where the control information may refer to the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as a secondary carrier (or secondary component carrier SCC). However, in some approaches, the control information may be sent over more than one carrier aggregated, e.g., over one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

The transmission may generally involve a particular channel and/or particular resources, in particular having a start symbol and an end symbol in time, covering the interval in between. The scheduled transmission may be a scheduled and/or anticipated and/or scheduled or provided or reserved resource transmission therefor. However, not every scheduled transmission must be implemented. For example, due to power limitations or other effects (e.g., occupied channels on unlicensed carriers), scheduled downlink transmissions may not be received, or scheduled uplink transmissions may not be transmitted. Transmissions may be scheduled for a transmission timing sub-structure (e.g., a minislot and/or covering only a portion of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure (e.g., a slot). The boundary symbol may indicate a symbol in a transmission timing structure where transmission begins or ends.

Predefined in the context of the present disclosure may mean that the relevant information is defined, for example, in a standard, and/or is available without a specific configuration from the network or network node, for example stored in a memory, for example independent of being configured. Configured or configurable may be considered to relate to corresponding information set/configured, for example, by the network or network node.

The configuration or scheduling, such as the micro-slot configuration and/or the structure configuration, may schedule the transmission, e.g., for its active time/transmission, and/or the transmission may be scheduled by separate signaling or separate configuration (e.g., separate RRC signaling and/or downlink control information signaling). Depending on which side of the communication the apparatus is, the scheduled one or more transmissions may represent signaling transmitted by the apparatus for which it is scheduled, or signaling received by the apparatus for which it is scheduled. It should be noted that downlink control information or rather DCI signaling may be considered physical layer signaling in contrast to higher layer signaling such as MAC (medium access control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the signaling layer, the lower it can be considered to be/the more time/the more resources consumed, at least in part because the information contained in such signaling must be passed through several layers, each requiring processing and handling.

The scheduled transmission and/or the transmission timing structure, such as a micro-slot or a slot, may relate to a specific channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or may relate to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. Corresponding configurations, e.g., scheduling configurations or symbol configurations, may relate to such channel, cell, and/or carrier aggregation. Scheduled transmissions may be considered to mean transmissions on a physical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, such as a physical uplink shared channel or a physical downlink shared channel. For such channels, a semi-persistent configuration may be particularly suitable.

In general, the configuration may be a configuration indicating timing and/or represented or configured with corresponding configuration data. The configuration may be embedded and/or comprised in a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/or schedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/or semi-statically.

The control region of the transmission timing structure may be an interval in time intended or scheduled or reserved for control signaling, in particular downlink control signaling, and/or for a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. The interval may comprise and/or consist of a plurality of symbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicated signalling (which may be unicast, e.g. addressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on PDCCH or RRC signalling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, a transmission timing structure may include a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It can be considered that, in general, the boundary symbol is arranged to temporally follow the control region.

The duration of the symbols (symbol time length or interval) of the transmission timing structure may generally depend on the parameter set and/or the carrier, which may be configurable. The parameter set may be a parameter set for scheduled transmissions.

Scheduling devices, or scheduling for devices, and/or related transmissions or signaling, may be considered to include or be some form of: the apparatus is configured with resources and/or resources are indicated to the apparatus, e.g. for communication. Scheduling may particularly relate to a transmission timing structure or a sub-structure thereof (e.g. a time slot or a micro-slot, which may be considered a sub-structure of a time slot). It is contemplated that boundary symbols may be identified and/or determined with respect to a transmission timing structure even for scheduled sub-structures, e.g., if an underlying timing grid is defined based on the transmission timing structure. The signaling indicating scheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or configuration data considered to represent or contain the transmission indicating scheduling and/or comprising scheduling information. Such configuration data or signaling may be considered a resource configuration or a scheduling configuration. It should be noted that in some cases, such a configuration (in particular as a single message) may not be complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with other signaling (e.g. higher layer signaling). In particular, in addition to the scheduling/resource configuration, a symbol configuration may be provided to accurately identify which symbols are assigned to scheduled transmissions. The scheduling (or resource) configuration may indicate one or more transmission timing structures and/or an amount of resources (e.g., by number of symbols or length of time) for the scheduled transmission.

The scheduled transmission may be, for example, a transmission scheduled by the network or a network node. In this context, the transmission may be an Uplink (UL) or Downlink (DL) or Sidelink (SL) transmission. An apparatus, e.g., a user equipment, for which scheduled transmissions are scheduled may be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or transmit (e.g., in UL or SL) scheduled transmissions, respectively. Scheduling a transmission may specifically be considered to include configuring a scheduled apparatus with one or more resources for the transmission, and/or informing the apparatus to: the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for some resources. The transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, particularly a contiguous number of symbols, which may form a contiguous interval in time between (and including) the start symbol and the end symbol. The start symbol and the end symbol of a (e.g., scheduled) transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure (e.g., the same time slot). However, in some cases, the end symbol may be in a later transmission timing structure than the start symbol, particularly in a temporally following structure. For scheduled transmissions, the time durations may be associated and/or indicated, for example, in a number of symbols or associated time intervals. In some variations, different transmissions may be scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. The scheduled transmission may be considered to be associated with a particular channel, e.g. a shared channel such as PUSCH or PDSCH.

In the context of the present disclosure, a distinction may be made between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmissions and/or configurations and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmissions and/or configurations. The term "dynamic" or similar terms may generally relate to an occurrence and/or transmission timing structure (e.g. one or more transmission timing structures like time slots or time slot aggregations) for a (relatively) short time scale and/or (e.g. predefined and/or configured and/or limited and/or explicit) number of occurrences and/or configurations/transmissions that are valid and/or scheduled and/or configured for one or more (e.g. a certain number of) transmissions/occurrences. The dynamic configuration may be based on low level signaling, e.g. control signaling at the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. The periodicity/semi-statics may relate to longer time scales, e.g. several time slots and/or more than one frame, and/or an undefined number of occurrences, e.g. until dynamic configurations contradict, or until a new periodicity configuration arrives.

The transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively their associated time intervals). In the context of the present disclosure, it should be noted that for ease of reference, reference to a symbol may be construed as referring to a time domain projection or time interval or time component or duration or length of time of the symbol, unless it is clear from the context: the frequency domain components must also be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slots, subframes, minislots (which may also be considered as a substructure of a slot), slot aggregations (which may include multiple slots and may be considered as a superstructure of a slot), and/or time domain components thereof. The transmission timing structure may typically comprise a plurality of symbols defining a time domain extension (e.g. an interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure and arranged adjacent to each other in a numbering sequence. The timing structure (which may also be considered or implemented as a synchronization structure) may be defined by a series of such transmission timing structures, which may for example define a timing grid with symbols representing a minimum grid structure. The transmission timing structure and/or boundary symbols or scheduled transmissions may be determined or scheduled relative to such a timing grid. The received transmission timing structure may be a transmission timing structure in which scheduling control signaling is received, e.g., with respect to a timing grid. The transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot or a subframe, or in some cases a minislot.

The feedback signaling may be considered to be some form or control signaling, e.g., uplink or sidelink control signaling, such as UCI (uplink control information) signaling or SCI (sidelink control information) signaling. The feedback signaling may particularly comprise and/or represent acknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/or measurement reports.

The acknowledgement information may include an indication of a particular value or state of the acknowledgement signaling procedure, e.g., ACK or NACK or DTX. Such an indication may for example represent a bit or bit value or a bit pattern or an information switch. Different levels of acknowledgement information may be considered and/or indicated by the control signaling, for example to provide distinguishing information about the quality of reception and/or the location of errors in one or more data elements received. The acknowledgement information may generally indicate acknowledgement or not reception or different levels thereof, e.g. indicating ACK or NACK or DTX. The acknowledgement information may relate to an acknowledgement signalling procedure. The acknowledgement signaling may comprise acknowledgement information relating to one or more acknowledgement signaling processes, in particular one or more HARQ or ARQ processes. It can be considered that for each acknowledgement signalling procedure to which the acknowledgement information relates, a certain number of bits of the information size of the control signalling is assigned. The measurement report signaling may include measurement information.

The signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. The signal may comprise and/or represent one or more bits that may be modulated into a common modulated signal. The indication may represent signaling and/or be implemented as a signal or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling, particularly control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages that may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different acknowledgement signaling procedures, e.g., representing and/or involving one or more such procedures. The indication may comprise signalling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be included therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or associated with different acknowledgement signalling procedures, e.g. indicative of and/or relating to one or more such procedures.

The signaling utilizing and/or on and/or associated with a resource or resource structure may be signaling covering the resource or structure, may be signaling on one or more associated frequencies, and/or in one or more associated time intervals. A signaling resource structure may be considered to include and/or encompass one or more substructures that may be associated with one or more different channels and/or signaling types and/or include one or more apertures (one or more resource elements that are not scheduled for transmission or reception of a transmission). The resource sub-structure, e.g. the feedback resource structure, may be continuous, typically in time and/or frequency, within the associated interval. It can be considered that a sub-structure, in particular a feedback resource structure, represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in the time/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure or sub-structure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent a non-contiguous pattern of resources in one or more domains (e.g., time and/or frequency). The resource elements of the sub-structure may be scheduled for associated signaling.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or bit rate associated with a particular signaling that can be carried on a resource element may be based on a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS). Thus, for example, depending on the MCS, a bit or bit rate may be considered as a form of resource representing a resource structure or range in frequency and/or time. The MCS may be configured or configurable, for example, by control signaling (e.g., DCI or MAC (media access control) or RRC (radio resource control) signaling).

Different formats for control information may be considered, for example, different formats for control channels like the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The PUCCH may carry control information or corresponding control signaling, e.g., Uplink Control Information (UCI). The UCI may include feedback signaling and/or acknowledgement signaling, such as HARQ feedback (ACK/NACK), and/or measurement information signaling, including, for example, Channel Quality Information (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request (SR) signaling. One of the supported PUSCH formats may be short and may occur, for example, at the end of a slot interval and/or be multiplexed and/or adjacent to the PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on the sidelink, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI), in particular on a (physical) sidelink control channel such as (P) SCCH.

A code block may be considered as a sub-element of a data element like a transport block, e.g. a transport block may comprise one or more code blocks.

The scheduling assignment may be configured with control signaling, such as downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such control signaling may be considered to represent and/or include scheduling signaling, which may indicate scheduling information. A scheduling assignment may be considered scheduling information indicating a signaling schedule/signaling transmission, in particular relating to signaling received or to be received by a device configured with the scheduling assignment. It can be considered that a scheduling assignment can indicate data (e.g., a data block or element and/or a channel and/or a data stream) and/or an (associated) acknowledgement signaling procedure and/or one or more resources over which data (or in some cases reference signaling) is to be received and/or indicate one or more resources for associated feedback signaling and/or a range of feedback resources over which associated feedback signaling is to be transmitted. The transmissions associated with the acknowledgement signaling procedure and/or the associated resources or resource structures may be configured and/or scheduled, e.g., by a scheduling assignment. Different scheduling assignments may be associated with different acknowledgement signaling procedures. Scheduling assignments, e.g., if transmitted by a network node and/or provided on the downlink, may be considered an example of downlink control information or signaling (or side-link control information if used and/or transmitted by a user equipment).

The scheduling grant (e.g., uplink grant) may represent control signaling (e.g., downlink control information/signaling). The scheduling grant may be considered as configuring a signaling resource range and/or resource for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, in particular uplink control signaling and/or feedback signaling (e.g. acknowledgement signaling). Configuring the signaling resource range and/or resource may comprise configuring or scheduling it for transmission by the configured radio node. The scheduling grant may indicate a channel and/or possible channels to be used/available for feedback signaling, in particular whether a shared channel, such as PUSCH, may be used/will be used. The scheduling grant may generally indicate one or more uplink resources and/or uplink channels and/or formats for control information related to the associated scheduling assignment. Both the grant and the one or more assignments may be considered (downlink or sidelink) control information and/or associated with different messages and/or communicated with different messages.

The resource structure in the frequency domain (which may be referred to as a frequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a grouping of subcarriers. The subcarrier grouping may include one or more subcarriers, each of which may represent a particular frequency spacing and/or bandwidth. The bandwidth of the subcarriers, the length of the interval in the frequency domain may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/or the parameter set. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrier is adjacent in frequency space to at least one other subcarrier of the packet (for packet sizes greater than 1). The subcarriers of a packet may be associated with the same carrier, e.g., configurable or predefined configurations. The physical resource blocks may be considered to represent packets (in the frequency domain). A grouping of subcarriers may be considered to be associated with a particular channel and/or signaling type for which transmissions are scheduled and/or communicated and/or intended and/or configured for at least one or more or all of the subcarriers in the grouping. Such association may be time-dependent, e.g., configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may be different for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. A pattern of subcarrier groupings may be considered, which may include one or more subcarrier groupings (which may be associated with the same or different signaling/channels), and/or one or more groupings without associated signaling (e.g., as seen from a particular apparatus). An example of a pattern is a comb (comb) for which one or more packets associated with one or more different channels and/or signaling types are arranged and/or one or more packets without associated channels/signaling are arranged between pairs of packets associated with the same signaling/channel.

Example types of signaling include signaling of a particular communication direction, particularly uplink signaling, downlink signaling, sidelink signaling, and reference signaling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/or signaling associated with a particular channel (e.g., PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, pscsch, etc.).

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular network functions, procedures, and signaling steps, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the techniques presented herein. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may be practiced in other variations and modifications that depart from these specific details.

For example, the concepts and variations are described in part in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-advanced (LTE-a) or new air interface mobile or wireless communication technologies; however, this does not preclude the use of the present concepts and aspects in conjunction with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies, such as global system for mobile communications (GSM). While the described variations may relate to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the third generation partnership project (3 GPP), it will be recognized that the present methods, concepts and aspects may also be implemented in connection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Further, those skilled in the art will recognize that the services, functions, and steps explained herein can be implemented using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or a general purpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variations described herein are set forth in the context of methods and apparatus, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in a computer program product as well as a system comprising control circuitry (e.g., a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor), wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that perform the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variations presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or without sacrificing all of its material advantages. The aspects presented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations include:

explanation of abbreviations

ARQ automatic repeat request

CBG code block group

CDM code division multiplexing

CQI channel quality information

CRC cyclic redundancy check

CRS common reference signals

CSI channel state information

CSI-RS channel state information reference signal

DAI downlink assignment indicator

DCI downlink control information

DFT discrete Fourier transform

DMRS demodulation reference signals

FDM frequency division multiplexing

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

MCS modulation and coding scheme

MIMO multiple input multiple output

MRC maximum ratio combining

MRT maximum ratio transmission

MU-MIMO multiuser multiple-input multiple-output

OFDM/A OFDM/multiaddress

Peak to average power ratio of PAPR

PDCCH physical downlink control channel

PDSCH physical downlink shared channel

Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)

PRB physical resource block

PUCCH physical uplink control channel

PUSCH physical uplink shared channel

(P) SCCH (physical) side link control channel

(P) SSCH (physical) sidelink shared channel

RRC radio resource control

SC-FDM/A single carrier frequency division multiplexing/multiple access

SCI side Link control information

SINR signal to interference plus noise ratio

SIR signal to interference ratio

SNR signal-to-noise ratio

SR scheduling request

SRS sounding reference signal (signaling)

SVD singular value decomposition

TDM time division multiplexing

UCI uplink control information

UE user equipment

URLLC ultra-low time delay high reliability communication

VL-MIMO ultra-large multiple-input multiple-output

ZF zero forcing

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage, if applicable.

Claims

1. A method of operating a user equipment (10) in a radio access network, the method comprising: transmitting, during a transmission period, first signaling having a first set of transmission characteristics and second signaling having a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set, wherein transmitting comprises including, in the time domain, an instantaneous guard interval between the first signaling and the second signaling.

2. A user equipment (10) for a radio access network, the user equipment (10) being adapted to: transmitting, during a transmission period, first signaling having a first set of transmission characteristics and second signaling having a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set, wherein transmitting comprises including, in the time domain, an instantaneous guard interval between the first signaling and the second signaling.

3. A method of operating a radio node (100) in a radio access network, the method comprising: configuring a user equipment (10) with an instantaneous configuration indicating that an instantaneous guard interval is to be inserted in the time domain between first and second signalling to be transmitted by the user equipment (10), wherein the first signalling has a first set of transmission characteristics and the second signalling has a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set.

4. A radio node (100) for a radio access network, the radio node (100) being adapted to: configuring a user equipment (10) with an instantaneous configuration indicating that an instantaneous guard interval is to be inserted in the time domain between first and second signalling to be transmitted by the user equipment (10), wherein the first signalling has a first set of transmission characteristics and the second signalling has a second set of transmission characteristics, wherein the first set is different from the second set.

5. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transient guard interval is a silence interval or an interval filled with transient signaling.

6. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the first set differs from the second set in at least one of signaling duration, channel type, bandwidth of transmission and/or allocation, transmission strength.

7. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the instantaneous guard interval is adapted to a circuit switching time for switching between the first signaling and the second signaling.

8. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein a duration of the second signaling is shorter than a duration of the first signaling.

9. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transmission periods are adjacent by two downlink transmission timing structures.

10. Method or apparatus according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the transmission period is represented by and/or comprised in a transmission timing structure and/or spans two transmission timing structures, wherein a transmission timing structure may in particular be a time slot.

11. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the second signaling has a duration covering N symbol time intervals, N being less than 7, in particular less than 5, or less than 3.

12. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the transient configuration is configured using control signaling, e.g. dedicated signaling or broadcast/multicast.

13. The method or apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the instantaneous guard interval is a low level interval, a ramp interval, or a cyclic interval, and/or signaling of the instantaneous guard interval is associated with a third set of transmission characteristics corresponding at least in part to the second set.

14. A program product comprising instructions for causing a processing circuit to control and/or perform a method according to one of claims 1, 3 or 5 to 13.

15. A carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing the program product of claim 14.